1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a light distribution control apparatus, and a light distribution control apparatus for controlling an illuminating state of headlamps mounted on a vehicle, for example.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-296550 discloses art for conducting light distribution control according to a road shape based on information from a navigation apparatus. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-296550 discloses controlling in a field of light distribution an illuminating state of headlamps mounted on a vehicle. This light distribution control predicts a curve or the like from map data (especially road data) held by the navigation apparatus in advance, and a current vehicle position, and changes an illuminated area before the curve to increase visibility.
It is conceivable to use a predetermined function of the navigation apparatus, and a headlamp apparatus which can change the light distribution in the left/right and up/down directions, and which can change the illuminated range and illumination intensity, to determine the shape of a road to the front of, or forward of, a vehicle and a position of an intersection by using the function of navigation apparatus, and to optimally control the illuminating direction, and the illuminated range of headlamp apparatus based on a driving operation.
It is also conceivable to determine a traveling region with the navigation apparatus, and to conduct light distribution control appropriate for the traveling region.
2. Description of Related Art
Different sensor elements and logics conduct processing for detecting a current position with a navigation apparatus, and for identifying a vehicle position on road data with map matching. A detected result by the sensor elements may generate an error. An effect from this error of the sensor element deflects an illuminating direction, a range, and an illumination intensity from a direction to be illuminated.
A main purpose of the road data for the navigation apparatus is to guide a vehicle along a traveling path. However, curved roads or paths with curvatures less than a certain value are often represented non-curvilinearly. Such a curved traveling road is often misunderstood and represented incorrectly as a road which is straight, without a branch, and which continues along a long distance. Because the road data used for map matching in the navigation apparatus may not represent road shapes correctly, a light distribution may deflect away from a proper direction even when the processing for sensors and the map matching is conducted precisely.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a light distribution control apparatus which is less affected by navigation features, and especially by detection errors of the sensor elements, and distributes light more properly.
A light distribution control apparatus is provided with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing at least road data for representing road shapes, a road shape acquiring means for acquiring a road shape forward of a current position detected by the current position detecting means from the road data, a road shape reliability determining means for determining a reliability of the forward road shape acquired by the road shape acquiring means, and a lighting control means for controlling a lighting state of the lighting apparatus based on the forward road shape acquired by the road shape acquiring means, and a determined result by the road shape reliability determining means to achieve the purpose described before in a form 1 of the invention.
A light distribution control apparatus is provided with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing at least road data for representing road shapes, a map matching means for calculating a road on which the vehicle is traveling with a high probability based on the road data and for calculating a position on the road based on the detected current position, a reliability determining means for determining at least either one of a reliability of detection element of the current position detecting means and a reliability of map matching of the map matching means, a road shape acquiring means for acquiring a road shape forward of a current position detected by the current position detecting means from the road data, a road shape reliability determining means for determining a reliability of the road shape acquired by the road shape acquiring means based on the reliability of the detection element, and the reliability of map matching determined by the reliability determining means, and a lighting control means for controlling a lighting state of the lighting apparatus based on the forward road shape acquired by the road shape acquiring means, and a determined result by the road shape reliability determining means in a form 2 of the invention.
The light distribution control apparatus according to form 1 or form 2 is further provided with a steering angle detecting means for detecting a steering angle of the vehicle where the lighting control means adopts a steering associative mode where an illuminating angle by the lighting apparatus changes according to the detected steering angle when the reliability determined by the road shape reliability determining means is low, a navigation system associative mode where the illuminating angle by the lighting apparatus changes according to the acquired forward road shape when the determined reliability is high, and a selectively associative mode where the steering associative mode is mainly adopted, and the navigation system associative mode is selectively adopted when the determined reliability is medium in a form 3 of the invention.
A light distribution control apparatus is provided with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing map information including at least road data for representing road shapes, a traveling region discriminating means for using the map information to discriminate a traveling region where the vehicle is currently traveling, a traveling region reliability determining means for determining a reliability of the traveling region acquired by the traveling region discriminating means, and a lighting control means for controlling an illuminated area and a glare quantity by the lighting apparatus based on the traveling region acquired by the traveling region discriminating means, and a determined result by the traveling region reliability determining means, in a form 4 of the invention.
A light distribution control apparatus is provided with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing at least road data for representing road shapes, a map matching means for calculating a road on which the vehicle is traveling with a high probability on the road data, and a position on the road based on the detected current position, a reliability determining means for determining at least either one of a reliability of detection element of the current position detecting means, and a reliability of map matching of the map matching means, a traveling region discriminating means for using the map information to discriminate a traveling region where the vehicle is currently traveling, a traveling region reliability determining means for determining a reliability of the determined traveling region based the reliability of detection element, and the reliability of map matching determined by the reliability determining means, and a lighting control means for controlling a lighting state of the lighting apparatus based on the traveling region discriminated by the traveling region discriminating means, and a determined result by the traveling region reliability determining means in a form 5 of the invention.
The light distribution control apparatus according to the form 4 or the form 5 has a feature that the lighting control means determines a highway illuminated area with a high glare quantity corresponding to highways, a base illuminated area with a medium glare quantity corresponding to general traveling regions, or an urban illuminated area with a low glare quantity corresponding to an urban region according to the discriminated traveling region, adopts the base illuminated area when the determined reliability of determined traveling region is low regardless of the determined traveling region, decreases the glare quantity in an illuminated area corresponding to the determined traveling region when the determined reliability of determined traveling region is medium, and selects an illuminated area corresponding to the determined traveling region when the determined reliability of determined traveling region is high in a form 6 of the invention.
A light distribution control apparatus is provided with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing at least road data for representing road shapes, a matching means for calculating a road on which the vehicle is traveling with a high probability on the road data, and a position on the road based on the detected current position, a reliability determining means for determining at least either one of a reliability of an detection element of the current position detecting means and a reliability of the matching means, and a lighting control means for controlling a lighting state of the lighting apparatus based on a determined result by the reliability determining means in a form 7 of the invention.
A light distribution control apparatus is provided with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing at least road data for representing road shapes, a road data reliability determining means for determining a reliability of the road data corresponding to the detected current position, and a lighting control means for controlling a lighting state of the lighting apparatus based on a determined result by the road data reliability determining means in a form 8 of the invention.
The light distribution control apparatus according to the form 8 is further provided with a road property judging means for judging a road property of a road on which the vehicle is traveling based on the road data, and a region property judging means for judging a region property of a region in which the vehicle is traveling based on the road data where the road data reliability determining means determines the reliability of road data based on either one of the road property and the region property in a form 9 of the invention.
The light distribution control apparatus according to the form 9 has a feature that the road data is classified by at least either one of the road width and the road type as the road property in advance in a form 10 of the invention.
The light distribution control apparatus according to the form 9 has a feature that the road data is classified into at least either one of an urban region, a non-urban region, an underpopulated region, a metropolitan region, a flatland region and a mountain region as the region property in advance in a form 11 of the invention.
Various exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a light distribution control apparatus with a lighting apparatus for illuminating forward of a vehicle, a current position detecting means for detecting a current position of the vehicle, a map information storing means for storing at least road data for representing road shapes, a path searching means for searching for a traveling path to a destination, an on-guiding path reliability determining means for determining a reliability that the detected current position of vehicle is on the searched traveling path, and a lighting control means for controlling a lighting state of the lighting apparatus based on a determined result by the on-guiding path reliability determining means in a form 12 of the invention.
The light distribution control apparatus according to the form 2 or the form 5 has a feature that the reliability determining means determines the reliability while considering whether there is a road above, below, left of, or right of, and parallel to the road on which the vehicle is traveling with a high probability in a form 13 of the invention.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the system and methods according to this invention.